1. When did this
site become a historic site? (When was the marker
or monument put up? or the house "interpreted"?)
How did that time differ from ours? from the
time of the event or person commemorated?
2. Who sponsored
it? Representing which participant group's point
of view? What was their position in social structure
when the event occurred? When the site went
"up?"
3. Why? What were
their ideological needs and social purposes
when the site went "up?" What were their values?
4. Who was/is the
intended audience for the site? What values
were they trying to leave for us, today? What
does the site ask us to go and do?
5. Did they have
government support? At what level? Who was ruling
the government at the time? What ideological
arguments were used to get the government to
acquiesce?
6. Who is left
out? What points of view go largely unheard?
How would the story differ if a different group
had told it? another political party? race?
sex? class? religious group?
7. Are there problematic
words or symbols that would not have been used
today, or by other groups?
8. How is the site
used today? Do continuing rituals connect today's
public to it? Or is it ignored? Why?
9. Is the presentation
accurate? What actually happened? What historical
sources tell of the event, people, or period
commemorated at the site?
10. How does this
site fit with others that treat its era? What
other people and events happened then but are
not commemorated on the landscape? Why not?
|